Learn more about MOM's upcoming Capital Campaign.

Kurt Saupe was a wonderful father, husband, scientist, teacher and athlete.  He passed away in June after a long battle with leukemia. It was Kurt's wish that something good come from his passing; he asked that we find a way to remember him by supporting the work of MOM.

The Kurt W. Saupe Foundation, Inc, is pleased to announce The Kurt, a sports and music festival to be held June 7-9, 2013 in Madison.

See how you can join in the fun now!  

The 2012 Expanded Annual Report is coming soon!

How does a moving rollercoaster, a replica of Big Ben, and 18 other hand-built structures help end hunger in western Dane County? When made from cans of food and packaged goods, the structures' building blocks will fill the shelves of one of the largest food pantries in Dane County.

Middleton Outreach Ministry hosted the third annual Canstruction® Madison, which in conjunction with a community wide food drive, raised 28 tons of food to feed area people in need. The event took place at KEVA Sports Center in Middleton.

Canstruction®Madison is a competition where community members come together to build incredible, highly imaginative structures out of canned goods and packaged food. After the structures are built and the winners are declared, all food used in the structures is donated to the MOM Food Pantry. Teams plan their structures weeks in advance, and then come together on the day of the event to build their displays. Prior to the evening event, the structures are judged by design professionals and community leaders.

This year's winners include:
Most Nutritious Meal - Exact Sciences: Wash Away Hunger, a sandcastle built mostly with Baked Beans, and surrounded by waves, made with cans of Tuna. The structure also included rice, and cans of fruit and vegetables. Exact Sciences also won the award for most cans, with a structure that included 6,157 cans of food.
Best Use of Labels - WTS Paradigm: 1-Up Hunger, a structure of Mario wiping out hunger and saving the day.
Structural Ingenuity - CUNA Mutual Group: Wishing Away Hunger with MOM, a genie made mostly of tuna, on a red carpet.
Celebrity Award, presented by Gilbert Brown: Middleton Fire Company #1: Responding to Hunger, a firestation replica with a talking firedog.
Judges' Choice - Capitol Insurance Companies: Food FORE ALL, a classic windmill mini-golf hole, complete with moving blades.
People's Choice - Thinking Outside the Can: Roller-Canster, a rollercoaster structure with a moving belt and a can (representing the rollercoaster car) that sped it's way around the track.
Youth Award -Middleton E.L.I.T.E.: The Time to End Hunger is Now, a replica of Big Ben.

According to MOM, this event is more than just a friendly competition. "Each can is more than just a building block; each can is food for a family and another step towards ending hunger in our community," says Al Ripp, Executive Director of MOM. "We're thankful for the community members who made our third year such a huge success. Nearly 45% of the people we serve are children, which makes this fun event also vital to our community's well-being."

The Middleton Outreach Ministry Food Pantry moved to a larger location in order to better serve a growing number of clients and to make it easier for them to obtain needed services.    The new location at 3502 Parmenter Street in Middleton is also home to the MOM office, which provides case management services as well as administrative support for the busy pantry and Clothing Center. Read more. 

Read the job posting on our Employment page and learn how to apply.

Gilbert Brown, Former Green Bay Packer and Super Bowl Champion and founder of the Gilbert Brown Foundation will join Canstruction® Madison 2013 as this year's celebrity judge!   The Gilbert Brown Foundation's mission is to service youth in an environment that promotes structure and life skills awareness, by introducing team building skills and promoting diversity in the community.  

Al Ripp has been appointed as Middleton Outreach Ministry's (MOM) new Executive Director. Ripp comes to MOM with more than 20 years of success leading corporate  initiatives.  Read more on our blog. 

Trish's preteen daughter has had several emergency surgeries and now is in the ICU and terminally ill. As a mother of three, Trish has a decent-paying job but the last year has been especially challenging and now Trish and her family are at a critical point. Helping Trish and other families like hers is easier than you think.   Read more.  

Learn more about how MOM is Preventing Homelessness and Ending Hunger through our video.

Hear from a client who is involved with the Food Pantry garden why it has changed her life, as told by Wisconsin Life.  The 3 minute audio piece is produced byWisconsin Public Radio in partnership with the Wisconsin Humanities Council.

The Wisconsin Division of Housing reported on Thursday that according to a January count, homelessness in Dane County has "substantially increased".    With a large number of people living in poverty, more people are on the edge of becoming homeless.

Middleton Outreach Ministry has also seen an increase in use of services.  MOM, which works to prevent homelessness and end hunger in the West Madison and Middleton areas, hit records for numbers of households using the Food Pantry twice in the month of May.   A record number used the Food Pantry on Tuesday of this week, serving 84 households in the short four hours that the pantry was open.  Clients took home around 4,250 pounds of food to feed their hungry families.  Since January of 2012, the pantry has distributed over 60,000 pounds of food per month, with the only exception being February, which was open less days.   In 2011, the food pantry distributed 56,000 per month, a dramatic increase of 60% over 2010.

The need for eviction prevention funds and utility assistance are also on the rise, with allocations being fully distributed before each month's end.

"Families in this community are in great need.  Often people look around and say 'I don't see people on the streets - we don't have a problem with homelessness and poverty in our area.'  What they aren't seeing are families who are scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck, just one emergency away from not being able to pay their rent or having food to put on the table," says Kathy Hansen, Executive Director of Middleton Outreach Ministry.  "It is organizations like MOM who are preventing homelessness each and every day, trying to provide the resources that people who are in dire situations need to stay in their homes."

At the beginning of 2010, Middleton Outreach Ministry changed their Food Pantry model to allow people to visit the pantry as often as they need instead of the previous limit of visiting once every 30 days.  The MOM Food Pantry is open more days per week and more hours than any other pantry in Dane County. The MOM Food Pantry is one of two pantries in Dane County to adopt the "Shop-As-Needed" model.

"We've seen a lot less families coming to us in high-crisis mode because they know we are open six days per week and they can come as often as they need.  While we can't solve every problem a family may face, we do know we can take food insecurity off their list" says Cheri Farha, Distribution Center Manager.  "But the need is rising at an alarming rate, so much that we've had to institute policies to help us manage the flow of people through the Pantry.   We've also had to move produce to a tent outside to help manage the amount of food that is distributed each day."